Improvement in packing sheet metal for transportation



UNITEU STATES A'TnNr OFFICE.

DELAPL'AIN MODANIEL, OF NEW CASTLE COUNTY, DELATVARE, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND J. J. MOCULLOGH, OF CECIL COUNTY, MARYLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN PACKING SHEET METAL POR TRANSPORTATION.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 37,323, dated January (i, 1563.

To @ZZ whom it may con/ecrit:

Be it known that I, DELAPLAIN MCDANIEL, of the county of New Castle and State of Delaware, have invented certain new and useful e Improvements in Packing or Boxing Sheet Metal for Transportation; and I do hereby declare that the same are described and represented in the following speciiication and drawlngs.

" To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention and improvements, I will proceed to describe their construction and the mode of using them, referring to the drawings, in which the same letters indicate like parts in each of the figures. i

'Figure l is the top of a package of sheet metal. Fig. 2 is the bottom. Fig. 3 is the edge. Fig. 4..,is a section of Fig. 2 cut perpendicularly.

Prior to my invention sheet-iron and perhaps some other kinds of metal have been packed or prepared for transportation by laying a convenient number of sheets in a pile on two or three strips of iron, then press the sheets together and bend the strips or bars over the edges. Sometimes strips or bars are used stiff enough to hold the sheets Without connecting the ends, and sometimes the ends have been riveted or locked together when the strips were thin. Vhen ithas been important or desirable to hold the sheets straight while being transported, a bar of Wood has been put under the straps at each edgeon one or both sides of the bundle for that purpose. When sheet metal is packed in this way, the corners and edges of the sheets get bent and bruised and considerably injured, and if the bundle gets wet the whole pack is liable -to become oxidized or rusted, so as to materially lessen its value and render it unsalable. Besides, it is very inconvenient to handle packages of sheet metal without adequate protection to the hands, and at the same time they are very destructive to the carts, drays, cars, and vessels in which they are transported.

The object and design of my invention and improvements is to remedy the inconveniences and defects enumerated and others. This I have accomplished by making the two outside sheets larger than the others in the bundle and binding up the edges and locking them together, so as to make a box of the two outside sheets, which will effectually hold and protect the sheets it contains from inj ury while being handled and transported.

Hence the nature of my invention and improvements in packing or boxing sheet metal for transportationI consists in making one or both of the two outside sheets larger than those between them, and bending over the edges so as to form a box or covering of the outside sheets to protect the sheets between them. f

In the accompanying drawings a package or bundle` of sheet-iron is shown, the sheets being twenty-eight by fty-six inches, except the two outside sheets, which arelarger, and the package is one inch thick. The top sheet, A, is twenty-eight and three-fourths by iiftysix and three-fourths inches,as represented by the dotted lines B B. The corners are cut off, as shown at C, and three-eighths of an inch at each end and side is turned up at a right angle to receive the edgesl of the bottom sheet,

as will be hereinafter described.

D is the bottom sheet. Its edges are shown by the dotted lines E E in Fig. l. It is thirty and three-fourths inches by fty-eight and three-fourths inches long. Each corner should be cut in the form shown by the dotted lines which connect the ends of the lines E E, and the sheets which are to constitute the bundle are now piled on it with the top sheet, A, and the whole closely pressed together by weights or other convenient means. When the sides of the bottom sheet from F to G are turned up at aright angle against the edges of the sheets and the tongue H bent around the corner to protect it, to the position shown by the dotted line I, then the ends from .I to K are turned up in the same manner the sides were, so that the edges of the bottom sheet, D, stand parallel and by the edges of the top sheet, A. That portion of the bottom sheet from E to L which projects above the edge of the top sheet is bent or clinched over it, and then both are bent down and clinched onto the top sheet, A, as shown at IVI, Fig. 4, completing and perfecting the bundle. u

When a package is put up or boxed as above described, the seams may be luted with tar or some cheap cement or paint, so as to render in practice.

side sheets are no more likely to be injured than if the bundle were packed in the old way, and will be worth just as much when they arrive at their destination as they would be if they had been made the same size of the sheets inclosed and fastened with strips or bands. Besides,when packedin my improved method, the sheets `are not liable to be injured or the corners or edges bent or bruised, and if the outside sheets are wet the insidesheets are safely protected; and, further, the edges of the bundle are so smooth that they may be handled without injuring the hands and trans4 ported without wearing the vehicle which conveys them more than ordinary merchan dise.

I contemplate that skillful artisans may modify my invention and improvements i-n various ways and retain the merits and principles which I have invented and carried out If the sheet metal is not to be carried far or handled milch, it may be preferable to simply turn up the edges of the bottom sheet and apply bands or bands and strips of wood to stiften the bundles; or the edges ofthe top and bottom sheets may be both turned up, so as to stand beside the strip of wood, and the bundle hooped, or the edges of the outside sheets perforated and nailed to the wood; and before applying the bars of wood the end may be locked, so as to hold them together; or the edges of the top and bottom sheets may 'be bent toward each other and lapped one upon the other,to protect the sheets between them, and secured by bands either with or without the bars of wood.

If it is desirable to have the'bundle so that inside sheets can be inspected for any purpose,

` one end may be left open, as shown in the drawings, and provided with a cover, N, which may be hinged to the bottom sheet, as shown in the drawings, or otherwise.

I contemplate that all kinds of sheet metal may be packed or boxed as above described, and that the outside sheets may be of an inferior quality or of a different kind of metal.

I believe I have described and represented my improvements in packing and boxing sheet metal for transportation so as to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use them.

What I claim as my invention and improvement in packing or boxing sheet metal for transportation isl Making one or both of the two outside sheets larger than those between them and bending over the edges so as to form a box or covering of the two outside sheets, to protect the sheets between them.

D. MCDANIEL.

Witnesses:

THOMAS YOUNG, IHILEMMA CHANDLER. 

